BURLINGAME >> After making a bizarre entrance to the California Republican convention, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump hit some familiar notes in a speech to delegates, touting himself as the only candidate who could beat Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, in November.
Hundreds of protesters blocked Trump’s path when his motorcade arrived at the Hyatt Regency near San Francisco International Airport, forcing the real estate mogul to enter the hotel through a back entrance. In a scene broadcast live on TV, Trump and his entourage walked along a service road and along a concrete barrier, over a grassy median and into the hotel.
“That was not the easiest entrance I’ve ever made,” Trump joked upon taking the stage about an hour late. “We were walking over and under fences. I felt like I was crossing the border.”
The quip touched on Trump’s famous pledge to build a towering, roughly 1,000-mile wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and make America’s southern neighbor pay for it. He boasted Friday that the wall would be frightening in height.
“If anybody gets up there,” he said, “they’re going to say, ‘Man, how do we get down?’ “
Several hundred delegates and paid attendees waited in a long security line, along with dozens of reporters, to hear Trump speak. Some of the delegates sported GOP-red outfits.
Bill Gilbert, a retired San Francisco police lieutenant, said he paid $100 to hear more of Trump’s “common-sense” ideas for improving the country.
“I like what he says. He’s for America and business,” said Gilbert, 71, of Woodside. “I think he’d be good for the country.”
Waving Mexican flags and Dump Trump placards, protesters grew boisterous when they learned Trump’s security personnel had out-foxed the demonstration, as hundreds of protesters pushed toward the hotel.
The protesters carried signs supporting every idea on the progressive political spectrum, from “STOP HATE” — a banner expressing that sentiment was unfurled inside the hotel atrium and then quickly pulled down — to “free the nipple.”
A group of women and one man walked through the scrum topless, wearing pasties that demanded liberation for the very body parts they were barely covering.
A Trump supporter walking toward the hotel was surrounded by protesters. Witnesses said the man did nothing to provoke the crowd except wear a Trump hat.
Jack Beebee, a microbiology student at San Jose State, said she wasn’t there to protest Trump — not so much because of his policies but because of his brand of populism. “I’m here to redress grievances now preemptively,” she said.
All three remaining Republican presidential candidates are speaking this weekend as the convention continued with a dinner banquet Friday evening featuring Ohio Gov. John Kasich, with information not available at press time. There will be a lunch banquet today with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, recently announced as Cruz’s running mate, will host a dinner banquet on Saturday night.
Burlingame police said in a statement on Thursday night that they prepared for the protests against Trump by drawing officers from law enforcement agencies throughout the region.
Trump started his California visit Thursday night with a rally in Costa Mesa in Orange County. Protestors clashed with police outside and scuffled with Trump supporters leaving the event. One news photographer captured a man wearing a Trump T-shirt whose face had been bloodied. About 20 people were arrested.
Polls show Trump has a commanding lead in California. Trump got the support of 49 percent of likely Republican primary voters, followed by Cruz with 22 percent and Kasich with 20 percent, according to a Fox News poll released April 22.
After sweeping five states on the East Coast in convincing fashion Tuesday, the businessman and reality TV star is well on his way toward clinching the Republican nomination. But a strong performance in California would help him reach the magic number of 1,237 delegates and avoid a showdown with anti-Trump forces in July at the Republican National Convention.
“If his goal is to get the nomination on the first ballot, he has to take a large portion of the vote in California,” said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. “For Cruz and Kasich, this is the last line of defense in preventing Trump from getting to 1,237.”
Ken Khachigian, a longtime Republican strategist and former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, said Trump, who has relied largely on instincts and media exposure so far in dominating the Republican field, will need to roll up his sleeves and think through how to appeal to California’s various diverse constituencies.
“I do think if Trump’s going to pull this off, he’s going to have to study California really hard,” he said.
The candidates are competing for 172 delegates in California, 159 of which will be awarded by congressional district. Winning one of the state’s 53 congressional districts nets a candidate three delegates. Whoever wins the popular vote June 7 will secure the remaining 13 delegates.
